Sens. Perdue and Cotton introduce bill to restrict legal immigration

WASHINGTON - Republican Senators David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas introduced legislation on Tuesday to restrict legal immigration in the United States.

The Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act would cut the number of legal immigrants entering the U.S. to roughly 638,000 in its first year and about 540,000 by the tenth year for a 50-percent reduction from the 1,051,031 immigrants who entered the country in 2015.

“We are taking action to fix some of the shortcomings in our legal immigration system,” said a statement from Senator Perdue. “Returning to our historically normal levels of legal immigration will help improve the quality of American jobs and wages.”

The bill would eliminate the annual Diversity Immigrant Visa program, also known as the “green card lottery,” which provides 50,000 permanent resident visas a year. It also limits the number of refugees offered permanent residency to 50,000 a year.

The bill would also eliminate immigration preferences for certain adult and extended family members, but retain immigration preferences for spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.